Looks like the Oscar people announced the 73 movies up for Best Picture (maybe it was just 9), and I've apparently only seen one of them. And not a helluva lot of desire to see any of the others.

The Help - The only one I saw. It was ah-ight. Contrived, predictable, but well acted.

The Artist - My time at Film School will make it difficult for me to watch anything called "The Artist" b/c it's an immediate indication that someone was taking themselves way too seriously, but the reviews are really good so I'll probably eventually watch it.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - This just looks like a steaming pile of heartstring-tugging vomit created with the sole intention of getting a nomination (and it worked). Movie got a 48% on Rotten Tomatoes, so not even the critics like it. How does this get an Oscar bid? Man, I miss the movie biz politics.

The Tree of Life - Terrence Malick... pass.

Moneyball - I don't know why I can't work up the interest to rent this. I look at it, think I'll watch it eventually, and move on. I'm sure it's good, but I already know the story start to end, and it just doesn't captivate me.

The Descendants - Now THIS I want to watch.

Hugo - I'd like to see this too.

Midnight in Paris - I like Woody Allen, I do. But not any of his movies from, say, the last 15 years. So I see a nomination for one of his films and I ask myself if he finally hit on one and captured a little of the old magic or this is a nomination based on lifetime achievement and was the first even decent pic that Woody has made in forever that they could nominate.

War Horse - You tell me World War I war movie, and I'm there. Except then you center the movie around a damn horse. I still want to see it, but I still can't help but wonder if this isn't just another ah-ight movie that gets a nomination b/c of the director's name (in this case, Spielberg, who's been about as washed up as Allen the last 10 years).

e0y2e3 wrote:Much better year for Indy films, off the wall awesome like Drive, etc.

Probably the best movie I saw in 2011, so interesting and unique. I guess the hoity toities on the academy couldn't handle a little (artistic) gore. It deserved 4-5 major nominations but for Albert Brooks not to get the token nod for Supporting Actor is a joke. He won something like half of the critics awards.

"Well then I guess there's only one thing left to do...win the whole, f***in', thing."- Jake Taylor

I certainly didn't love Tree of Life, but it was functionally a more interesting project than anything else here.

Bored some people to death, I didn't really like it, etc, but that was at least an attempt to make art.

Most of the shit on this list doesn't even deserve being called art, let alone the best art of the year. It's trully a horrendous list, leaving me to favor the one film that pushed the limits and standards even if I didn't like it.

And Penn criticizing Malick was the single least surprising thing ever. You couldn't fit those two in most rooms together with their egos.

WAR HORSE, seriously? Fucking Speilbergian tripe about a horse in World War 1? The Help made me want to cut myself....

The Artist is the most obvious attempt to pander to the Academy and by an award while making shite ever....

I'm in a good mood tonight...so I'll let Lee live for having the terminal stupidity of stating that "Match Point" was anywhere in the same galaxy as "Munich".

So this is the first year Oscars have hit, and I'm not doing reviews.

I picked the right time to retire.

The Help - Just arrived on blu-ray. I'm expecting it to be ah-right, but nothing exceptional.

The Artist - This is the type of "art film" that I normally can't stand. It's a semi-comedy and a gimmick film. It's supposedly the early favorite...but it reminds me of "Avatar" being the early favorite: a gimmick film that was watchable, but not that great.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Gotta agree with Hiko on this one...pure schmaltz.

The Tree of Life - 30 minutes worth of interesting movie combined with two hours of stab your eyes out boredom. Seriously, Malick is one of the most tedious filmmakers I've ever seen. He's sucked for years, and he still sucks now. I defy anyone to watch a double-header of "The Thin Red Line" and "The New World" and not come out of it wanting to take an Uzi to an McDonalds just to feel something again.

An entire career, and this dillwad has only made 10 films. All of them except "Badlands" sucked.

Moneyball - Watched this last weekend, and was really blown away. I don't think it's worthy of winning Best Picture (although it's better than Crash or Shakespeare in Love), but it was damn good. Hell of a character study, and Pitt and doughboy Jonah Hill kicked ass.

The Descendants - Seeing this on Sunday. I'm like Hiko...this is the one I'm most wanting to see.

Hugo - It's from Scorcese, so it can't suck...but then again...The Age of Innocence came close to sucking

Midnight in Paris - It wasn't bad. Much more whimsical than Match Point without being too neurotic. Owen Wilson didn't make me want to projectile vomit on the screen, which is rare.

War Horse - Now Hiko gets on my shitlist for his dissing of "Munich". I want to see this, and know I'll love it just because I'm a big animal lover...but I'm a little concerned about reports that it's just a little too sappy for my taste. Might be E.T. with hooves.

Early thoughts; the odds right now say that it's either The Artist or The Descendents.

I'm concerned that this year is another 2004, with a mediocre Million Dollar Baby winning Best Picture over such other bleh films like The Aviator, Ray, Sideways (maybe the best of the nominated films) and Finding Neverland.

Wow, Spielberg has spent so much time schilling out for shitty pennies this decade I forgot about Munich.

I like it a few smidges more than Match Point, but I'll still argue Allen has easily had a stronger last decade. And at least he isn't attached to Terra Nova and Smash, NBC's new promised hit about the making of a Broadway musical!!!! And I can understand why people don't like Match Point, not looking to start that argument....

2004 is a really good comp for this year, although I still maintain that at least Tree of Life tried something, nothing else even did that, which is the most depressing part. Unless crying about fucking horses in WWI is trying something (seriously, can you just die already Spielberg?)

(and again I didn't even like Tree of Life)

Terrible mainstream year, terrible terrible terrible. And a year that once the Indy's and foreign film make the rounds many will end up liking, which makes it just weird.

mitch wrote:War Horse - Now Hiko gets on my shitlist for his dissing of "Munich". I want to see this, and know I'll love it just because I'm a big animal lover...but I'm a little concerned about reports that it's just a little too sappy for my taste. Might be E.T. with hooves.

In my defense, I've never seen "Munich". I did see many of the movies that came out right before that (and "IJ & The Crystal Skull") and just found myself disinterested in his work anymore. He needs to stop schmalzing shit up.

mitch wrote:War Horse - Now Hiko gets on my shitlist for his dissing of "Munich". I want to see this, and know I'll love it just because I'm a big animal lover...but I'm a little concerned about reports that it's just a little too sappy for my taste. Might be E.T. with hooves.

In my defense, I've never seen "Munich". I did see many of the movies that came out right before that (and "IJ & The Crystal Skull") and just found myself disinterested in his work anymore. He needs to stop schmalzing shit up.

I personally don't have a huge problem with schmalz...if it's done well.

But that doesn't mean that it's worthy of Best Picture.

I'll also agree that this century has not been the best one for Spielberg. I'll still say that Munich was one of the best films of the last 10 years. And Minority Report is highly underrated as a cautionary tale (I actually think it's more relevant now than it was when it came out in 2002. Watch it now...while thinking "Zuckerberg was probably behind this technology").

And then you have the awful Indiana Jones and the Fossil that is Harrison Ford; The Terminal, Catch Me if You Can, A.I., and War of the Worlds. Ugh

Clooney needs to go ahead and clear out a spot in his trophy case for his Oscar for Best Actor. Unbelievable performance...he's onscreen for every shot, and there wasn't a single smirk or any other "I'm George Clooney, and I'm so damn rich, handsome and cool" moment that you see in most of his other films.

He really allowed himself to get swallowed up in a role of a man who is completely struggling with being out of his element in everything in his life a the time.

A lot more serious than I thought, thinking that it would be like "Sideways" with a lot of comedic moments. There were a few...but all-in-all, it was a very serious subject.

Don't know if it will beat out the gimmick film (The Artist) for Best Picture...but it should.